Winter's Heart - Chapters 20-22

In this section, confusion stems from new point of view characters and missing details from a new location.

Bethamin and Egeanin provide new viewpoints from the Seanchan perspective, which when added to Tuon’s makes 3 chapters from three different Seanchan. The author is clearly pointing to the Seanchan as a major part of the ongoing story with this attention to their citizens, and so many new points of view in this book serves as a signal that the story has reached a turning point. While this is useful to establish the background of the various players, jumping from character to character carries risks. In this instance, unfamiliarity with new characters means the reader may be confused, angry that her favorite characters are absent, or simply too impatient to care about these newcomers.   

The two Seanchan characters are particularly unlikely to have the reader’s acceptance because the Seanchan have been depicted as villains up until now. Their culture is evil by all the standards of our heroes, and it also alien to them, which makes embracing a character from there very difficult.

Bethamin is the Wheel of Time’s equivalent of a slave driver, using an a’dam instead of a whip. This is a behaviour that is particularly unlikeable, but the author uses a few techniques to try to overcome that.

First, Bethamin is performing an inspection, which is a simple duty anyone can identify with. The author is trying to establish common traits with the readers. She cares for the health of her damane, which is slightly admirable given that she is talking about humans. She bullies Renna, who had tried to break Egwene to the a’dam. Anyone who bullies Egwene’s enemies can’t be that bad. She doles out candies. Maybe not all sul’dam are bad.  Maybe Bethamin could switch sides.

Before sympathies develop too much, a reminder of Bethamin’s cruelty is given: how she takes away her charges names and gives them new ones. Three gentle strokes, one slap.

Then it’s back to nice Bethamin. She takes special care of damane having problems; she refuses to lose a damane, even that ugly old Tessi. It’s no accident that Teslyn is used an example. Teslyn stood for Elaida, deposed Siuan, is Red Ajah, and has no compelling physical traits, so Bethamin stands in opposition to all that Teslyn represents. Bethamin distrusts Aes Sedai, as do all the readers by now. She makes a note to be more diligent about breaking Tessi. Three gentle strokes, one slap.

Other things which align the reader’s sympathies with Bethamin: she enjoys shopping, she has a healthy sense of self-preservation, and she knows secrets that could be useful to our heroes. Except for her current station in life, which is at risk, she is incredibly normal.

When someone alien is introduced, you want to highlight the differences. But you also need to establish commonalities, with the reader more than with the other characters.

The Seeker exemplifies the highly paranoid nature of the alien Seanchan culture. He has knitted together moonbeams and happenstance into a strangling cord for Egeanin’s neck. He is recognizable as a police officer, a common character type, but the paranoia and limitless power make him ineffectual. Only by blundering into clues does he make any headway, and that in the wrong direction.

Egeanin continues to be the bridge between cultures, with her potential husband and so’jhin Bayle Domon. She is resigned to the fact that she will never fully induct him into Seanchan culture, and with this danger before her, she realizes it is she who might have to embrace his culture instead.

Egeanin’s loyalties would obviously seem to lie with the mainlanders under the circumstances, and readers would accept her since she has been helpful to the heroines in past books. But to place doubt in the reader’s mind, a crucial action she took, handing the male a’dam over to Suroth herself, will taint that association with goodness. At best she was caught with no way out, at worst she betrayed Rand and Nynaeve. When she says she will stay free “whatever it took”, the example of her quick surrender of the male a’dam should come to mind as an example of how quickly she would throw allies overboard.

Rand has an entire chapter set on Far Madding, and we are told that he can safely confront the Asha’man here, but not how. He has a swordfight with one, but we are not told why neither is using the One Power.   The explanation will come a chapter later, which allows readers to enjoy a fight, an assassination, and a second assassination without the context. Keeping the explanation back from readers is meant to convey a sense of secrecy and frustration, just as Rand is experiencing. Similarly, Kisman is lacking information despite giving much insight to readers. Isam also doesn’t know the whole story, but again reveals exciting details. Assassinations of Kisman and the couple staying in Rand’s old room symbolize that what Rand doesn’t know could kill him. Rand really is lost morally and spiritually, but everything he needs will soon be coming in with Cadsuane, which is symbolized by her readers finally learning about the city when she strolls into town.

Writing Lessons:

When someone alien is introduced, you want to highlight the differences. But you also need to establish commonalities, with the reader more than with the other characters.

The Path of Daggers - Chapters 23-24

In this section Rand and the Seanchan engage in warfare.

Robert Jordan gained a strong reputation for capturing the mood of battles. We’ll now dissect the first large scale battle since The Fires of Heaven.

Rand’s strategy has been shown, and with the advantage of surprise and Traveling, he should be unstoppable. The body count is very high, Bashere will compare it to the Blood Snows, the battle near Tar Valon during which Rand was born. Most of Rand’s followers are in some form of shock at the devastation. Rand’s losses have been limited. Unless they face damane, the Asha’man tear every opponent apart meeting little resistance.

Rand encounters a problem with prisoners. He can’t afford to guard prisoners so he leaves them behind, except for damane and sul’dam, who he keeps in order to weaken the Seanchan. Rand’s unfailing memory of every woman who has died as a result of his actions gets more unbelievable every time he adds a name, there are simply too many. That is one of the points being made: trying to take responsibility for every person you meet is an impossibility.

So far, Rand is winning.

More Seanchan with names and personalities are met. Furyk Karede has been appointed to lead the Seanchan towards Rand. He notices that raken returning from the front lines are anxious. He dispatches a man under his command for actions that have squandered lives. Furyk will luckily live through this battle thanks to his wise decision to retreat. What else could he do with no sul’dam to fight back against the lightnings?

Rand is still winning.

An Asha’man tells Rand about saidin’s strange behaviour, which he dismisses. Rand proves particularly reluctant to take advice or information that has not been solicited. He is not someone you would want to have to serve. Rand continues to lose few men in battle. A group of Seanchan slip past Weiramon and manage to hit Rand directly. Yet the nobles he has been so reluctant to trust come to his aid, charging the Seanchan to protect Rand, coming to his side to treat his wound. Morr is surprised to receive thanks, given that Rand has done such a good job of expecting obedience without question or reward. The Darkfriends in his party plant the idea of continuing the march against the retreating Seanchan, all the way to Ebou Dar. His staunchest supporters, the ones he trusts the most, advise ending the campaign. Lews Therin sagely says “I would not mind having you in my head, if you were not so clearly mad.”

Rand is winning, but we sense he’s about to make a mistake.

A third Seanchan, the short-lived Kennar Miraj, continues to humanize the enemy. Suroth pays him a visit with information she has gleaned from the network of Darkfriends around Rand. This is a fine opportunity to quickly tie off some loose ends by showing the current fate of Alwhin and Liandrin without wasting much page space on it. In mid-battle, the author wants to keep the focus on the battle. These Seanchan perspectives also are a great place to lay groundwork for future Seanchan-related plots such as the Crystal Throne. We are left with the conviction that the Seanchan are quite proficient in war, and also obedient to the point of a death which can be easily avoided. The damane are about to be reintroduced to the fighting, though they may still be ill. The author creates sympathy for the enemy by showing how they are not being given what they need to succeed, and by continually reminding us that the bulk of the forces Rand is killing so far are from Tarabon, who are technically his own people.

This is the Seanchan counter thrust.

Rand directs five columns to attack an assembled force of Seanchan. When the lengthy list of nobles is given for each of the five columns, it serves to place the actors for the next few scenes, as well as to humanize Rand’s forces. Lews Therin makes the same observation about saidin’s behaviour, and now Rand is willing to pay a little attention. Only a little, because he rejects Dashiva’s concerns and carries on with the attack. Yet he can’t help noticing little changes among the Asha’man.

The reader should be worried that the Seanchan counterthrust will succeed.

Miraj has planned for how to meet Rand in battle. But the question of how the sul’dam will do is still up in the air.

Now the reader suspects the battle could go either way.

Bertome Saighan overhears the Darkfriends plotting and disagreeing. They are two of the closest to Rand. The words they use are as confusing as the battle itself. Either their words are being misinterpreted, as other nobles were earlier when Rand fell during an attack, or it is strongly implied that Gedwyn will try kill Rand.

The rapid shifts from character to character represent the confusion and back-and forth nature of the battle. We can’t tell who is winning.

Varek is a Seanchan underling forced to take command and order a retreat. The damane had a difficult time controlling their weaves, and accidentally killed some of their own soldiers.

Bashere has taken heavy losses, and his Asha’man are tired and having trouble using saidin. Extreme caution is keeping Bashere alive. Bashere is alarmed about what would happen if Asha’man began deserting and walking the world.

The battle is still a draw, unknowable except for continued losses.

Adley has also slipped and killed some of his own men. Rand has taken him out of battle, concerned he might have begun turning irreversibly mad. When Bashere appears and tells Rand about orders he sent, we remember how Furyk killed an underling who did the same. Rand seems poised to copy that action in a fury. Bashere is able to direct his ire at the Seanchan, and Rand decides to prove how devoted he is to repelling the Seanchan invasion. Bashere points out the folly, and how good the Seanchan generals are. Rand’s ego prompts him to unveil Callandor.

As with Adley and the damane, Rand cannot control the torrents of lightning he unleashes. Bashere physically topples Rand and wrests Callandor from his grip. The damage is done, Rand has done as much damage to his own forces as the week of fighting has.

Rand has lost.

Yulan orders the final Seanchan retreat, given that Miraj has been killed by Rand’s final outburst.

The Seanchan have lost.

The entire battle has been a metaphor for the futility of war. Both sides retreat, the border hasn’t moved, neither Rand nor the Seanchan have given anything up. Rand can’t win because participating means he loses. The Tinkers may not have been in this book, but their saying that violence harms the axe as well as the tree it chops is apt here. Even as he routed the Seanchan, it was Rand’s own actions that caused the deaths of his men. Humanizing both the nobles and the Seanchan allows the reader to feel their loss. Meanwhile Rand is emotionless as a stone, unmoved by the tragedy of the wasted lives. The end result is that he and the Asha’man are even closer to going mad, as much from the horror of the battle as from the Dark One’s taint.

Writing Lessons:

Give your battles ebb and flow, and meaning beyond the immediate result.